After The Watershed: September 2011

Blood and guts, sex and blasphemy - not if the censor had anything to say, writes Arts Desk's Josh Spero...

I hadn't thought this one through very well. As someone who was put off horror films by a window crashing onto a hand in one of the Amityville movies at least two decades ago, watching Time Shift: Dear Censor last night, which promised to show some of cinema's most notorious scenes, was probably unwise. Happily, standards of gore, violence and sex have dropped so fast in the past 20 years that what was censorable in 1991 is PG now.

A compact history of the British Board of Film Censorship (it became the less finger-wagging Classification in 1984), made with extensive access to its letters archive, Dear Censor showed the tensions at play within the organisation as film-makers strove to make art and money - rarely at the same time. Some chief censors, such as John Trevelyan, seemed to trust that art was being made, and his clever co-option by film-makers such as Ken Russell, who let him advise on the script of Women in Love, neutralised his authority. (In one brilliant anecdote, Trevelyan used to come into the office and ask, "Who's fucking who today?") Others were victims of their time, driven out for liberal attitudes.

Moral campaigners were outraged when the film appeared in cinemas in 1969 notes Anita Singh in today's Telegraph, it was the first time that male full-frontal nudity had been allowed on screen. Ken Russell, the director, and Larry Kramer, the producer of the DH Lawrence adaptation, wooed the chief censor, John Trevelyan, by taking him out to lunch and offering to make him part of the “creative experience”. Mr Trevelyan was shown the script at every stage and helped to shape the finished product, requesting that the homosexual overtones be “handled discreetly”. When he expressed doubt about the “clearly visible genitals” on display, Russell responded by offering to darken the shot. Mr Trevelyan agreed, and declared the film “brilliant”.

The correspondence has been made public for the first time in a retrospective of landmark decisions by the British Board of Film Classification. Alan Bates, who died in 2003, admitted that watching the scene in the editing suite was an awkward experience. “You only get to see a few moments of it in the film, just a flash, but we saw hours of it. It seemed to go on for ever, and it was tortuous,” he said. “My worst fears were about my mother’s reaction – that I really dreaded – but it never bothered her in the least.” Linda Ruth Williams, a professor of film studies at the University of Southampton, said: “I think it needs to be remembered that this is only two years after sodomy for men over 21 was made legal in Britain. This was an extraordinary climate in which film-makers were in cahoots with censors from the outset.”

In 1954, the censors were so appalled by Marlon Brando’s character in The Wild One that they banned it altogether. The ban lasted until 1967, and the reasons are revealed in a letter to Columbia Pictures from the chief censor of the time, Arthur Watkins. “The Wild One would expose the board to justifiable criticism for certificating a film so potentially dangerous on social grounds,” Mr Watkins wrote. His ruling stated: “Brando is certainly an accessory to larceny, malicious damage to property, false imprisonment, assault and battery, insulting behaviour and reckless driving”.

Brando’s performance made the character of Johnny Strabler “attractive, admirable [and] imitable” and could have a “harmful influence” on young men, particularly Teddy Boys, the BBFC added. “We regret we are unable to issue a certificate for this spectacle of unbridled influence”. An executive from Columbia Pictures wrote back, describing the decision as a “terrible” one and attempting to reassure the BBFC that “what our film portrays is a matter that could not happen in England”. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. The film is deemed so innocuous now that the DVD carries a PG certificate.

There is a chicken-and-egg paradox in the existence of the BBFC: what comes first, the censorship or the attitudes of the public? Or, put another way, should the BBFC try to lead public taste or reflect it? This was the dilemma which recurred throughout the programme: from the letters of complaint received, clearly certain segments of the public were not ready for the word "fuck" in Ulysses, the full-frontal male nudity (always more dangerous than female nudity) in Blow-up and Women in Love, the rape in Straw Dogs, the kicking of a tramp to death in A Clockwork Orange, most of which we got to see. But then many people have never been ready for those.

As made clear by the greater permissiveness over the decades - even if an amusing flurry of letters flew about over how dark it should be in Women in Love to stop us seeing Alan Bates's penis - the censors were not immune to public tolerance, but they seemed to wish to slow it. This is no bad thing - we do not allow the public to see anything just because they wish to - but in retrospect it looks like stuffiness. If you choose to argue that society has indeed become debased by watching sex and violence - and many do (I recall especially the coverage of "video nasties" in reference to James Bulger's killers) - then you have much on your side.

One of the most shocking things in a programme full of shockers - Michael Winner talking about making a film in a nudist camp was nauseating - was what was considered offensive. We assume it is sex and violence (although I fail to understand how sex is as corrupting as violence), but one of the chief complaints of Outraged from Tunbridge Wells was blasphemy. It wasn't that the nuns in (him again) Ken Russell's The Devils were having an orgy that was offensive so much as the licking of the statue of Christ. This is one public bugbear that continues to bedevil us (pun intended): although not a film, Jerry Springer: The Opera was vilified for having Jesus in a nappy.

Under the reign of James Ferman (1975-99), the pace of acceptance accelerated. Dear Censor ended in 1991 because letters thence are still private, but it was a tantalising moment: Natural Born Killers was to come, as were Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and plenty of other films which would have made poor John Trevelyan sputter. Although the programme did not make a judgment on what came first, it seems that for most of its history, the BBFC has been trailing the public, and that's no bad thing - let it be slower than over-eager and release onto us what we're not prepared for.
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"What are you rebelling against, Johnny?"

"What have you got?"

Secret letters released by the British Board of Film Classification reveal how film-making shed its innocence over the past century, reports this morning's Guardian. Indeed, the way films are censored can tell us much about changing attitudes in society to sex, violence and rebellion. Enter the hidden world of the BBFC's written archive and a hundred years of film censorship are laid bare, writes Ben Southwell. It's possible to chart the changing concerns of the board as it has trodden a fine line between enforcing the standards of the day and recognising artistic endeavour.

The letters between censor and film-makers begin to take on a life of their own as the relationship develops from regulator to collaborator and beyond. An examiner's report on Ken Russell's The Devils reveals a wry sense of humour often present in the censor's letters. "I have no personal knowledge as to the shape of nuns under their habits, but I doubt they all look like the 'Playmates' of this film." What the exchanges reveal is the way certain films and scenes can be singled out to show the changing values of a nation. In the post-war years it was fears of social unrest that were near the top of the agenda. As the nation relaxed into the 1960s, nudity becomes a prime concern. The early 1970s saw film-makers keen to push at the limits of acceptability.

In the 1950s, the BBFC saw fit to impose an outright ban on 1953 Marlon Brando vehicle The Wild One, the story of a motorbike gang terrorising a small town in America. They feared it would stir up trouble among the UK's youthful teddy boys. The examiner's report sums up the concerns of the board very succinctly. "Brando is attractive, admirable, imitable." That represented a significant problem to a Britain still governed by a rigid social order. The board had no option but to come to the conclusion that: "We are unable to issue a certificate for this spectacle of unbridled hooliganism."

The film-makers pleaded with the censor to think again. As they said: "It is terrible that a costly picture of this description will have to be placed on the shelf without a pennyworth of revenue accruing from this territory." But the censor was unmoved and immovable. The film remained banned for 14 years. By the time it was finally granted a certificate in the late 1960s the world had moved on to such an extent that it was almost impossible to see what all the fuss had been about. Today the film carries a child-friendly PG certificate.

As Britain emerged from the austerity of the post-war years, long-held values came under growing pressure. Later that decade a "naturist" film named Garden of Eden, which was shot at a real nudist park, was banned outright. "I think Garden of Eden would provoke very noisy reactions at tough cinemas like the Elephant," wrote the censor to the film-makers in 1954. The examiner's report once more portrayed a singular sense of humour: "There are some unconsciously funny nudes. Especially one young lady with peculiar glutial muscles."

The censor had long had a very strict approach to the portrayal of nudity on screen. By the 1950s a rather curious type of film had begun to challenge this ban. Described as "naturist" films, these titles were deemed to be "educational". But the board could not let this sort of thing past. "The question of precedent must be the over-riding one here." However, the board's decision was only ever advisory. Local councils could choose to allow these films to be shown, a choice more and more of them began to make. By the late 1950s, the board seemed more like Canute than the moral guardian of the nation. In 1958 the censor bowed to the inevitable. "This film was recently reconsidered by this board and it was decided to rescind the previous decision and to pass the film with an A-certificate." The floodgates were opened.

1969 was another watershed moment as full-frontal male nudity in Ken Russell's film Women in Love was passed by the censor. The controversial nude wrestling scene in the film was approved for release only as the result of a secret pact between the then British Board of Film Censors and director Ken Russell. More than 40 years after Oliver Reed and Alan Bates writhed naked by the fireplace – the first time that many viewers had seen full frontal nudity in British cinemas – it has emerged that Russell was in cahoots with the chief censor, John Trevelyan, to ensure the scene did not have to be cut.

The letters between censor and producer/writer Larry Kramer reveal a relationship where the examiner has almost become part of the creative process. This was a time when many creative arts were perceived to be at a peak and the censor seems to have shared a sense of the possibilities offered by cinema. Kramer sent the script to the board before filming commenced to hear their opinion. "We would very much like to lunch with you after you have read the script," he wrote. "We feel we are embarking on an extraordinary creative experience which we would like to have you share with us." The censor replied: "Dear Larry, this seems an exciting production. I know Ken Russell and his work well and I am very happy that he is going to do this picture with you."

However, the censor was still concerned over the scene in which the two male protagonists wrestled in the nude. "If they were just indulging in horseplay as two friends there would not be problems, but we have already had clear indications that there are homosexual feelings between them, and this kind of scene could be troublesome if not handled discreetly. I can only advise you to be very cautious about it." When the film was submitted for certification this was the board's response: "While we are prepared to accept the wrestling scene, we would like you to remove if possible full-length shots in which genitals are clearly visible."

Ken Russell was willing to co-operate and collaborate: "I gather there is one full-length shot of Gerald which gives offence. The only way out of this... is to darken the shot and this I would be quite prepared to do." He finished his letter with a typical flourish: "Throwing myself on your good judgement, Ken Russell." As the darkened prints received the go-ahead the mutual respect of censor and film-maker reflected the mood of the age. The censor wrote to the film-maker: "We all think it's a brilliant film and are taking this into account in our judgement of it." So pleased were Russell and Kramer at the helpful attitude of the censor that the producer was moved to write a letter expressing their gratitude. "Dear John, can I say how grateful Ken and I are for your understanding help throughout these past months," he wrote.

In the 1980s the censors worried over the high levels of violence. When Rambo III was submitted to the board at the fag end of that decade the two previous Rambo films had each received the 15 certificate. But between parts two and three, the Hungerford massacre - when Michael Ryan killed 16 people with an assortment of guns - had made firearms and violence front-page news in Britain. The film was released with an 18 certificate after cuts were made. "Public disquiet is at a height," said the censor. "It is naive to believe that we can always act without regard to political realities. Indeed, I would go further and argue that it's irresponsible."

The attitude of what was now the British Board of Film Classification showed the way it had always had to respond to shifts in public opinion. As a result of events in Hungerford, as one examiner wrote: "This silly, rather enjoyable movie is likely to be a political red-hot potato." The problem was that Rambo III seemed to be almost non-stop gunfire. "It's not so much what is shown, but how much and how relentlessly." The examiners fell into an intense debate over whether to grant the film the same 15 certificate as its predecessors (albeit with cuts), or the more adult 18 reflecting the heightened sensitivities around gun use.

The published correspondence only runs as far as 1991 because the BBFC has imposed a 20-year rolling embargo on its written archives. Correspondence over notorious films like Natural Born Killers or Reservoir Dogs remains under lock and key, but the archive revealed so far shows an ever-changing attitude to the things that have concerned us most over the past 100 years. A BBC programme on the documents, Timeshift: Dear Censor, the Secret Archive of the British Board of Film Classification, was screened last night on BBC4 and can be viewed via iPlayer.
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How Quickly Do Premium-Cable Series Show Skin? asks Willa Paskin and Laura Reineke in New York Magazine. The premium cable channels, HBO, Showtime, and Starz, make their livings by selling consumers on the idea that they can't get the sort of programming these channels offer anywhere else. Some of what consumers can't get anywhere else, the premium networks would loudly proclaim, are world-class dramas, more complex and risqué than anything else on TV. Something else consumers can't get anywhere else, the premium networks proclaim a smidge less loudly, are naked people.

On premium cable, there will be boob, or at least ass — especially on the dramas. HBO's most recent series — Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire — didn't skimp on the nudity, and Showtime's upcoming terrorist drama Homeland and Starz's forthcoming Boss both, reliably, deliver breast in the first episode. On average, someone will be naked in the first episode of a premium cable drama in eighteen minutes and 36 seconds. To be fair, the king of the premium cable pack, HBO, actually shows more restraint than the other networks: On average, it takes 23 minutes and 33 seconds for someone to appear unclothed. On Showtime, it only takes 11 minutes and 28 seconds, while on Starz it takes 16 minutes and 44 seconds (if you don't count Boss, which waits a whole 40-minutes-plus to provide a long, lingering nipple close-up, Starz would win, usually providing nudity in 6 minutes, 19 seconds). Take a look at the complete, time-stamped list to see to see which shows and networks are most swiftly providing consumers with naked people for their buck.

Please note that if a show did not have any nudity in its first episode, we didn't include it here. We also didn't include comedies, which means Sex and the City, provider of nudity in just two minutes and nine seconds — a record! — did not make the list, nor did Eastbound & Down, with its topless woman on a jet ski, at the 27:43 mark.

3:10: Californication, topless woman in bed, smoking a cigarette. (Showtime)
4:31: Crash, naked man and woman having sex. (Starz)
4:41: The Borgias, naked man and woman having sex. (Showtime)
5:38: Rome, naked man's ass as he's brought before Caesar's soldiers. (HBO)
5:45: The Tudors, topless woman during foreplay/sex. (Showtime)
6:04: Spartacus: Blood and Sand, naked man and woman having sex. (Starz)
6:38: Six Feet Under, pantless man, mid-sex. (HBO)
7:01: Camelot , naked woman making out with a shirtless man on a blanket. (Starz)
8:51: Treme, naked man's ass as he gets out of bed in the morning. (HBO)
9:28: Homeland, topless woman, mid-sex. (Showtime)
10:12: The L Word, two naked women skinny-dipping in a swimming pool. (Showtime)
11:39: Big Love, naked man's ass. (Bill Paxton's)
11:53: Queer As Folk, two naked men having sex. (Showtime)
12:40: True Blood, topless woman, mid-oral sex. (HBO)
12:57: Tell Me You Love Me, fully naked woman and man. (HBO)
15:31: Oz, naked man's ass getting tattooed. (HBO)
18:00: Shameless, naked man's ass mid-sex; seconds later, exposed breast. (Showtime)
27:54: Boardwalk Empire, naked female corpse, post-autopsy. (HBO)
28:36: Dexter, nipple slip in a porn video. (Showtime)
30:53: Game of Thrones, naked woman mid-oral sex. (HBO)
33:22: The Sopranos, topless woman pole dancing at a club. (HBO)
48:41: Boss, Exposed breast, mid-stairwell sex. (Starz)
52:00: The Wire, dancer stripping on stage at a club. (HBO)
60:00: Deadwood, fully naked woman climbing into bed, no sex. (HBO)
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On September 19, the premiere of Two and a Half Men featured a joke where New Man Ashton Kutcher enters, naked with his junk blurred, and announces that last night he had sex with two women; Jon Cryer then laments that last night he masturbated and cried himself to sleep. Right before this, on the pilot of 2 Broke Girls, an unseen waitress has loud sex in the kitchen of a diner; when one of the impatient patrons asks Kat Dennings's character, “Do you know where our waitress is?” she replies, “She’s coming.” (I don’t know if I spelled that last word correctly, but you get the meaning. As did the studio audience, who roared uproariously — or, I should say, the laugh track did.)

These scenes surprised me in that: (1) I laughed twice while watching broadcast sitcoms; and (2) CBS Standards & Practices let such risqué jokes through. I've had many interactions with the network executives who guard public decency by noting the hell out of every script and edit of a show, demanding the removal of anything that might be objectionable to the few audience members who might be unoccupied enough to threaten a boycott of advertisers. Rather than being offended by the joke (though I never like to see anything on-screen that might suggest to women that they should expect an orgasm during sex), I was heartened to see a network giving producers a looser rein, writes Vulture's Gavin Polone...

But then the next morning I watched "The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger", a profanity-filled comedic remix of a nature video — "What a crazy fuck, look. Ew, it's eating larva!" — on YouTube a couple of times (exciting life I lead), then left the house for the gym and heard Rage Against the Machine’s "Killing in the Name" on Sirius's Lithium channel. As always, I cranked it up, in time to here Zach de la Rocha scream “FUCK YOU, I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME,” about 30 times. After the final line of the song — “Muthafucka!” — I began to think about just how stupid it is that I had heard a bunch of words on the net and satellite radio that have been banned on all non-premium cable and broadcast channels. After all, Radio Disney is a couple of button pushes away from Lithium on Sirius and my beloved Honey Badger is accessible to all on the same website as Fred Figgelhorn and millions of clips of cats being cats.

Whom are we protecting by not allowing fuck on broadcast and basic cable TV? I love the word fuck. Words with hard consonants are so much superior to other words. And what does fuck mean, anyway? Sometimes it is a synonym for darn; sometimes it is used in a phrase like “fuck you” (and I don’t really even know what that means, I just know it's aggressive and useful when driving in Los Angeles); and sometimes it's used as a verb to mean copulating. But even in that last context, it is far less evocative of a visual image than what I had heard on 2 Broke Girls or the nation’s favorite comedy, Two and a Half Men.

The FCC has certain rules about profanity and indecency on broadcast (meaning free) TV and radio during the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Live broadcasts like the Golden Globes and sporting events have been threatened with fines when an impromptu fuck has been uttered by an uncouth participant, though the implementation of those fines has been stopped in the courts. Howard Stern was repeatedly fined when on traditional radio, but once he went onto satellite he could say what he pleased because the FCC doesn't regulate its content; the government has decided, after rulings offered by the Supreme Court, that subscription services are immune from anti-obscenity rules. So if you can pay for Sirius, you can hear fuck in songs and on "Stern," then turn on Radio Disney for your kids. I guess the theory is that poor people must be protected from words but rich people are competent to make their own decisions?

The “Safe Harbor” rule says "indecent" material is okay from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., and that is particularly ridiculous. Young people are increasingly time-shifting their TV viewing. For this generation, even DVRs are old-school; most people under 20 that I know download almost all of what they watch. Technology has allowed people to watch what they want, when they want, therefore a 10 p.m. delineation is meaningless.

While the resistance to using fuck is, in part, a reaction to FCC intimidation, some of the networks' hesitance to allow the word in shows comes from economic concerns. Basic cable networks don’t have to worry about the FCC, because, like satellite radio, they are a paid service, yet they hold to certain standards for fear of alienating sponsors. I have worked at FX before and know that they’ll let you say shit and ass but not fuck. They have even allowed cocksucker, which is far more graphic and less common in the vernacular than fuck. Why they, TBS, TNT, and other cable networks continue to hold this line makes no sense; I doubt one fewer box of Tide will be sold because someone on Sons of Anarchy says a meaningless expletive that the character would say in the real world. I recently saw a funny and obvious exchange on FX's Louie about anal sex, and FX didn’t lose sponsors as a result. How can talking about anal sex not be more obscene than a biker telling another biker to “fuck off”?

So I say to the networks and the FCC, let’s give up the ban on fuck. It makes no sense, and having rules that are obviously silly, hypocritical, and classist undermines the validity of the imposed standards and the body that imposes them. And as long as we're going down this road, why can't they allow some limited frontal nudity, as they do on TV in Europe? Growing up in the late seventies, I saw plenty of nudity in films and really doubt that is the source of my psychological issues. Use the TV-Mature ratings on broadcast and basic cable like they have on HBO, so poor and rich people alike can decide whether they want to see a show with certain themes and words, and let fly. It will only mean for better, more realistic TV, and what could be wrong with that? Better TV will probably get more people to migrate back to television from the Internet, which is the true repository of obscenity.

And don’t get me started on cunt.
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Following the disputation over Britain’s first ever daytime TV advertisement for a sex toy company to be aired next week, the Telegraph takes alook at some that were just too controversial for our screens...

1. Kylie Minogue's advertisement for lingerie firm Agent Provocateur, in which she rides a mechanical bull, was created specifically for cinema and banned from being shown on television. It showed the singer gyrating on a red velvet rodeo bull in stockings and suspenders to show that underwear line was "the most erotic lingerie in the world". At the end of the short film she challenges the men in the audience to "stand up and be counted".

Despite the clip being banned for being too sexy to show on TV, it was voted the world’s top cinema advertiesment after netting over 350 million hits on YouTube.

2. The first abortion commercial on British television was broadcast to post-watershed viewers last year. The ad, for the Marie Stropes clinic - UK's leading provider of sexual health services outside the NHS - was part of a campaign aimed at breaking one of society's last taboos. The word abortion wasn't mentioned and the charity offered a number of other services related to pregnancy and sexual health, however, critics complained it was clearly designed to point women towards getting terminations. Pro-life groups and religious organisations campaigned for it to be banned. Channel 4 stopped the ad from being broadcast in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal.

3. A Halloween radio advert for the adult clothing retailer Ann Summers was banned last year by the broadcasting regulator. The advert, for a range of risqué costumes, had been blocked because regulators fear it might be heard by children.

The commercial begins with the sound of screams which are soon after replaced by screams of sexual pleasure.A sultry voice-over can then be heard to say: "Tight. Short. Low-cut. Ann Summers dead sexy Halloween outfits with £5 off. In stores, online and at parties."

4. The first television advert for the morning-after pill sparked outcry from all corners of the country. It showed a girl waking up next to her lover, remembering a broken condom and then buying emergency contraception from a pharmacy.

Campaign groups warned that young girls would be "particularly susceptible" to the controversial add and should be pulled. Dominica Roberts, of the ProLife Alliance, said: "It is advertised inaccurately as emergency contraception, when in fact its major function is to cause the abortion of an embryo that has already been conceived, not as suggested by the name to prevent conception.

"Young girls will be particularly susceptible to this advertising campaign, and it is foolish to imagine they do not watch TV after the 9pm watershed."

5. The ad to get some of the most complaints in recent times was the fish hook ad which appeared almost everywhere from the television, internet, press and posters as part of the NHS anti-smoking campaign.

The ad described the smokers’ craving for cigarettes by having their cheeks pulled through with a fish hook. Most people’s verdict to the ad was that it was terrifying, distressing and even frightening. ASA maintained that the ad could lead to serious offences and agony in adults and kids alike.

Infact, inspite of the ad having the “ex-kids restriction” that banned controversial ads to be shown in between kids/ programs, two television and poster ads depicting the same found to be both scary and upsetting for kids.
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Colette Burson, the co-creator of the HBO show, 'Hung,' has found that a large percentage of her job is discussing sex and nudity in great detail...

My first job was as a singing waitress. It was the only job I could get in my small town, an artsy-but-hicky little place in the Appalachian mountains that fast food chains hadn’t farted on yet. I would come, all age 17 of me, singing one of the only tunes I was somewhat comfortable with: “Chim Cher-ee,” or whatever that damn song is called that Dick Van Dyke nails in the sooty clothes, from Mary Poppins. I usually started with a hand on my cocked knee and a “chimney sweep smile” on my face, hoping against hope that the Cockney accent would hide my multitude of singing errors. But by the end of the summer I knew: I had no career as a singer. Or as a waitress. Now my job is working on Hung, the TV show where Thomas Jane and Jane Adams join together to sell Ray’s (Thomas Jane) big dick, which starts its third season on HBO on Sunday. For me, Hung started in the summer of 2008, when I was wildly pregnant, finally had an elective c-section (it’s easier, but nurses give you dirty looks), and then days later started shooting the pilot in Detroit with Alexander Payne. I co-created Hung and co-run it with my husband, Dmitry Lipkin.

We are, in a way, pornographers. Accidental pornographers. Showrunning Hung means coming up with storylines, developing scripts, and supervising production. We live with the show every day (a state I call Hungland), multitask like lunatics, work crazy long hours, blah blah blah. But the interesting part is how much time we and our writers spend dissecting sex on a lot of different levels. For example, how the male and female psyches go into and through sexual encounters differently. Or not. Fact is, we have to create sex scenes and the context for them, in almost every episode. So do a lot of shows, but Hung isn’t about people in love. It’s about women who don’t know Ray, who decide to PAY to have sex with him. Why do they do it? and Would I ever do it? is what the show is about. (Fascinatingly, I hear a lot on the street about large groups of Marines, as well as clusters of women over 60, who are particularly obsessed with Ray and all the sex he has. I have theories as to why, but that’s another article.) On a more practical level, Step A in Hungland is conceiving and writing the sex scene. Step B, the crucial step (I like to call it “bringing home the bacon”) is shooting it.

Thomas Jane, who plays Ray, is fearless and easy, flashes his white butt in the credits every week, and has shown his penis in movies plenty of times. We show everything but that on Hung (we didn’t go there in Seasons 1 and 2; I’ll get back to this later), but to be fair, our society seems to hold men to a different standard. Flaws in men just aren’t focused on so much, whereas women are fair game and it feels like everybody with a remote is on an armchair safari hunt. There’s not an actress alive who isn’t worried about her sex scene, at least not one that I’ve encountered. Usually she wants to talk to me about her “problem area.” Every chick has a problem area, apparently, and they aren’t keen on having millions of people notice it. Particularly when those millions are capable of freeze-framing, not to mention zooming in and then posting it forever on the Internet. Given that, who can blame the actresses?

My job, then, becomes one of rock solid, you-can-count-on-me reassurance. I start yakking a mile a minute. Don’t worry, I’m a chick, I’ll be right there in the editing room, I’ll take care of you. It’s true actually, I do look out for them, and even if I think they look good by my own personal standards, I try to stare at that tummy fold or breast wrinkle from the hypercritical, potentially self-loathing actressy point of view. Out of chick solidarity, the editors and I freezeframe and zoom in and imagine it posted on the Internet forever so there won’t be heinous surprises popping up for anybody. I’ve got an ace track record in the “I’ll literally protect your ass” department, which is good for them and good for me (I can point to it in future conversations), and they always answer, “Yes, I’ve heard you do that, it’s so reassuring.” They usually also add, “I really want to do this, I do,” and, “I’ve been staring at myself naked in the mirror and I really want it to be OK!” But I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s a lot of last minute panic. There’s also the inevitable phone conversation after they are cast during which I have to go into detail about what will go down on set. Well, you’ll have a patch… you know, a little piece of material, they call it a patch, it’s placed over your crotch… and Thomas will have a cock sock, are you familiar with that..? Um, no. They usually aren’t.

There’s a pattern to the “nudity required” role, which is this: Actresses audition, full of brio. They get cast. Suddenly, they begin to feel quite a bit less confident. They begin to sweat and call their agents, who talk them off the cliff. They go home, undress, stare at themselves naked in mirrors a lot. They have trusted friends hold mirrors in places they normally don’t look. They panic even more deeply and begin to hyperventilate. A call is then arranged with me, the female half of the creator team, to go over details. I reassure them that their panic is a part of a very familiar pattern. It’s new to them but old hat to me. I tell them the truth, which is that they’ll be FINE in the end. Listen, I say. I know it’s really hard right now but this role is going to be great for you. Nudity never hurt anybody. Look how it’s been for Rebecca Creskoff! Believe me, the first time she came to the set she was trembling and holding her manager’s hand, but you know what she said to me later in the season? “Just so you know, the curtains match the drapes!” I swear to God!!! Yes! And that’s why we see her auburn airport runway in Episode 9!! So look. You’ll probably have an anxious week, and even though I tell you not to diet you’re going to spend the next three days fasting… but just know I’ll be in the editing room and absolutely nothing gets by me. I’ll make sure you’re beautiful. I’M A WOMAN, TOO. Plus. You’ll wear a robe the whole time on set. Rachel’s your dresser, she’s so nice and funny and supportive, she’ll remove the robe right before shooting. The first time it’s hell, really hell, it feels awkward and you’re embarrassed, you feel naked, and as a matter of fact, you are indeed naked. But here’s the good news. It’s like a wall; it lasts one or two minutes. And then you break through. You don’t care. It’s amazing. You are lib-er-ated. You could shoot that damn sex scene all day. You don’t even WANT your clothes back.

Really? They ask. Really truly, I say. Cuz it’s true. And if they still hesitate, I throw down my final zinger: You’ll be so glad you did it when you’re 60! They always agree with that one. Somehow it always works better than you’d think it would. Why is it so hard to get actresses to be naked, I’m sometimes asked? Aren’t actors naked on TV all the time? The difference is that our naked actresses—not always, but usually—need to be real actors. They need chops. We want to give them meaty lines and have them play real characters. Also, most of the time, they aren’t 20. Finding talent plus bravery in the age of the Internet is a difficult task.

“Colette, could you come down and take a look at the pubic hair?” That’s a real way to wake up in the morning, lemme tell you. I walk down to a trailer. The costume department chicks come in, along with our actress, sweet and pretty. This is a “full naked” role, not a “partially naked” one, so no snatch patch and everything needs attention. She nonchalantly drops trow, and three or so of us stare at the pattern of her pubic hair. I try to look thoughtful and matter-of-fact. The makeup artist says something like, “Would you like it thicker?” Pause. We all contemplate. “Or is that thick enough?” And she usually says something like, “I was thinking a thin strip, like an airport runway.” And then, depending on my mood, I give a thumbs-up to the airport strip idea, or else say rebelliously, “I’m sick of all this shaved like a preschool girl thing! Fuck that! We’re bringin’ back the bush!!”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the penis issue is less complicated. We don’t talk pubic hair. It just all boils down to whether we SHOW or DON’T SHOW. We get fervent opinions either way. I myself go back and forth. Why not show? But on the other hand… isn’t the perfect penis a different thing for everybody? In what state would we show said penis? Should we cheat like Boogie Nights did, flashing everybody the biggest cock of all time? Or just aim for fattish and nicely sized? Or hell, just run with whatever mood Thomas happens to be in that day? But wouldn’t showing Ray’s dong be kind of a turn off? And here you can see where it all gets really tricky. Why would it ever be a turn off, at least for penis-favorable individuals? Is it the reality of it all, meaning some level of fantasy is required? What does the word sexy really mean?

One thing I figured out after working on the big dick show for three years is that yes, some ingredient of fantasy is indeed required to make a pot of sexy. For women, sex is a lot in their heads. Ray embodies this idea in Season 3 more than ever, and the character is shinier and funnier because of it. Ray is sexy when he connects to his clients upstairs. Downstairs can’t be shabby, it’s really good that Ray’s horny-on-the-spot with no erectile dysfunction in sight, but what’s most important is that he worms his way into each client’s brain. Throughout Season 3 I had a card taped to my door to remind me of all this, scrawled in black marker: RAY + SEX = HAPPINESS.

Back when we sold Hung, it was like passing out candy to kids at Christmas. Honest to God, out of all the rooms I ever sat in or tried to sell something in, I never saw anything like it. It was like a fountain spurting positive energy was in the center of every conference table. Dmitry and I and our producer Michael Rosenberg would walk in, small talk a bit, and then Rosey would usually blurt something like, “We’re here to sell you a show about a guy with a big dick.” Everyone’s eyes would light up. Usually the room had more men in it than women, it’s worth pointing out, but still–they would smile. They would look enchanted. They would pull out their checkbooks. And then Dmitry and I would get to details, explain how we meant for the show to be more, about the economy and the complexity of sexuality and blah blah blah, but really it was just a cherry on the sundae at that point, because the room was sold, sold, sold. We sold that sucker six different times. And I would be thrilled, because I knew we could deliver something special, the big dick plus something more–but the rebel in me would secretly think, I’m a feminist, what am I doing here?

You live and you learn. I was a bad singing waitress, but I turned out to be a pretty good pornographer.
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Mary-Louise Parker isn’t America’s sweetheart. She isn’t Julia Roberts or Drew Barrymore. She isn’t bubbly and effusive and adorable. She’s rough around the edges and a little surly, the kind of woman who could probably handle herself in a bar fight. (A real bar fight, not the movie kind with breakaway bottles.) And she isn’t just like that in real life. On her Showtime series Weeds – currently in its seventh season – she plays a widow who sells marijuana to support her family and has recently been involved in a messy relationship with a Mexican drug lord who shares her enthusiasm for rough sex. It’s a role she reportedly took over a plum gig on Desperate Housewives (which eventually went to Teri Hatcher), choosing Weeds because, in her words, “it was uglier.”

Sipping tea as she sits for a Saturday-morning interview at a Manhattan hotel, Parker is strikingly pretty, with long, glossy, black hair. By now she is thoroughly comfortable as Nancy Botwin. "I love our show because it isn't just the norm," Parker said. "We don't hold back. We get a little bit out there, and that's fascinating to me."

Over the last few seasons of Weeds, we’ve learned that Nancy likes her sex a little freaky. She wants a lover who isn’t shy with the slapping and the spanking. Is that something you can relate to at all?

I think for her, sexuality is something that she wields. And she needs sex to be somewhat punitive. You know what I mean?

It has to feel like punishment?

Yeah, in a way. I think a lot of people have so much guilt wrapped up in sex, so they almost can’t tell the difference. There’s a scene we did for this season that gets pretty explicit. It was just supposed to be sex in a bar, but I really wanted it to be almost abusive. Because I think she needs it that way. And that’s really informative. If you just see two people fucking on screen, it’s not necessarily revealing about those characters. But if it’s coming from a particular point of view, that’s when I think it gets interesting.

There’s a line in the trailer for this season, in which you joke about going down on Linda Hamilton. Is that…? (Long pause.) I don’t know where I’m going with this question.

(Laughs.) Take your time.

If I can steal a line from Tina Fey, I want to go to there.

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. But no, that’s not happening. It’s just something they put in the trailer because it’s funny, but it doesn’t actually happen. It’s not a bad idea though. I’ve always thought that Nancy should have sex with a woman. It’d be good for her.

Would it help if we started a letter-writing campaign?

Like a grassroots sort of thing? Yeah, we should do it. “People In Support of Nancy Botwin Embracing Lesbianism.” Right on.

You’ve been called a “thinking man’s sex symbol.” Does that mean dumb people don’t find you sexy?

I guess so. Dumb people don’t want to fuck me. (Laughs.) I really don’t know what to say. “Thinking man’s sex symbol.” What do you suppose that means?

I’m not sure. When you get approached by male fans, are they usually neurosurgeons or college professors?

Not really, no. And thank god. I couldn’t even have a conversation with a neurosurgeon. I wouldn’t know what to say. I think that’s probably not an accurate way to describe me. Plenty of dumb people want to fuck me.

Oh god, that’s not going to play well in print, is it?

I think it’s great. What are you worried about, offending dumb people?

Yeah, I could be alienating the dumb people who want to fuck me. I’m just happy that anybody considers me a sex symbol at all. It does not cause me any amount of grief to be objectified in any way. I welcome it.

If your fans can’t be categorized in terms of intelligence, how would you describe them? Are they a certain age or social class or demographic? When you’re approached in the street, what’s the common denominator?

I never know why people come up to me. I think a lot of them just get super-excited because they recognize me from TV but they don’t remember where. It’s not like they’re necessarily happy to see me, you know?

You’re just the lady from the talking picture box.

Yeah, exactly. I think it’s a little dangerous if you overvalue that kind of attention. My son has recently started to notice it. One time a lady came running up to me in the street and said, “I love you! I love you so much!” And my son asked me later, “Why did that stranger say she loved you?” That’s a very hard question to answer.

How do you explain it? “The world is full of lonely freaks?”

I just said, “She was being hyperbolic, honey. Sometimes when people see someone from television, they feel like that person has come to life and they’re not just inside the TV box. They get very excited and don’t understand personal boundaries.”

And sometimes they like to give mommy pot brownies.

Precisely. But thankfully, they haven’t really done that in view of my children. Although my kids have started to hear about it. They know that my character on Weeds does something with drugs. So now I get questions like, “What are drugs?” And I’m like, “Well, it’s something that … people do.” It’s so hard! Sometimes it’s just easier to say, “She does things that are really, really naughty.” Kids love to hear that. “Oooh, like what?”

Well, like sometimes she has unprotected sex with Mexican mobsters and ends up having their baby.

That’s right. And sometimes men spank her in the back of limousines.

Television Series: Weeds (S07E13- Do Her/Don't Do Her)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Mary-Louise Parker
Video Clip Credit: El amigo

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Britain’s first ever daytime TV advertisement for a sex toy company will air next week, breaking one of the last taboos of the advertising industry. The 30-second advertisement for Lovehoney, an adult retailer that sells sex toys, lingerie and erotic books, will run on Monday morning on ITV2 during The Real Housewives of New York. It will air for a further two weeks across a variety of channels.

The clip does not feature any sex toys but shows a close-up of a married couple kissing passionately. At the end of the advertisement the couple part and suggestively tell each other to “have a good day”. The strapline is “Live a Sexier Life”. A Lovehoney spokesman compared it to the famous Gold Blend adverts of the 1980s, but “with added desire”. Lovehoney, which has an annual turnover of £13.5m, said that the advertisement will “bring the message of sexual happiness to the UK”.

Advertisements for sex toys have not appeared before the 9pm watershed before. However Lovehoney’s campaign, which has been described as suggestive rather than explicit, was approved by Clearcast, an agency that ensures that television advertisements are compliant with industry guidelines. Tracey Cox, a TV sex expert and author of books such as Supersex for Life, described the advert as “stylish and light-heartedly done”.

Ms Cox, who sells a range of adult toys through Lovehoney, said that the advert is positively tame when compared to some raunchy music videos. “If you look at the ad and compare it to any music video clip – like Rihanna for example – this is pre-school. What they get away with in music videos is crazy,” she said.

Ms Cox said that British consumers need to cast aside their prudishness when it comes to adult toys. She argued that divorce rates would be far lower if married couples were more adventurous in their sex lives. “One in two marriages is failing and a way of dealing with that is to use sex toys. We should be encouraging it,” she said. "Films and television shows have given people high expectations for their love lives, whereas in reality they can be hard work and boring".

Having watched Lovehoney's teaser ad, Stephen Green- National Director of Christian Voice- counters that if people's 'sexual happiness' depends on buying Lovehoney's products then they might be better looking for a psychological or spiritual remedy first. This ad isn't about spreading happiness, it's about making people believe they need a product they don't - creating a market to make a few quid, he argues. The advertising industry has got to realise that what is broadcast affects the cultural environment of us all. No man is an island and no-one knows the unintended consequences of a torrent of sexualised imagery and brutalised language.

Green insists he has heard the arguments that 'all TVs have an off switch' but states you have to see what is on the TV before you can turn it off. If you are walking in a field you can avoid the cowpats but it is not as easy when you are watching TV. Maybe the remote has fallen down the back of the sofa. Maybe Mum just nipped out to the kitchen leaving the tots sat in front of the box.

Green believes many of us have given up on regulators like Ofcom, where the politically-correct liberal agenda rules OK. "I cannot remember the last time they upheld a complaint over morality or decency," he said. "Even Marie Stopes's advert for abortion was allowed through. You can rely on Ofcom's conclusion inevitably to contain the sentiment that 'a majority of viewers would not have been offended because ... blah, blah, blah'. Some will say that the adverts should be shown after the so-called 'watershed' but I am not convinced that the watershed is either observed or that it is logically defensible."

Surely, reasons Green, if children shouldn't be viewing sexual images because they are corrupt and corrupting then adults are compromising themselves as well. "Since when did a need to watch or read pornography or listen to bad language become a mark of being an adult? Just as surely as good art exalts, evil art debases. Pornography and brutality have no place in the culture of a vibrant society, and every civilisation which has exalted sex as we are doing today has been one in its death throes. How much worse does it have to get before people say 'Look, we've had enough of this aggressive sexualisation of society'? Or will the people just go along with it until the judgment falls, in whatever way it might, and we slide collectively down the rubbish chute of history?"
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New York native Paz de la Huerta has had one of the most remarkable years of her career. Her show "Boardwalk Empire" has been showered with Emmys and Golden Globes, and there has been lots of buzz over her scantily clad character, Lucy. Outside of the show, she's gotten attention for her eclectic fashion choices and occasionally wild behavior. With "Boardwalk Empire" returning to HBO Sunday for its second season, Paz chatted with Wonderwall about her character, being comfortable in her own skin and what she's looking forward to out of her career...

What is in store for Lucy this season?

Paz de la Huerta: "The audience is going to see the real side of Lucy, kind of stripped of everything she had, because one, she is not with 'Nucky' [Steve Buscemi] anymore. In the first season she was very insecure; in those ages, it wasn't like women could have the opportunity that women have now. She thought the only way to get what she wanted was through her sexuality. This season, she is still very sexy, but the audience will see her more vulnerable and just stripped of everything materialistic. They will realize how courageous she is: She will not stop at anything to get what she needs."

Are you comfortable playing such a sultry character?

"Why should I be uncomfortable? In order to be a good actress you have to be able to get naked, and when I say that I mean naked emotionally. America is such a prude country; I am European and nothing is wrong with nudity. Its natural to be sexual; sex is a big part of life."

Do you enjoy dressing up in the period costumes for the show?

"John Dunn [costume designer] is a genius. They are the most impeccable costumes. You go into the costumes department and it's like 200 people. The '20s is an era of clothes that I wouldn't say its my favorite. … I personally like '40s, '50s style more. Lucy Danziger definitely embodies [a sexual revolution] because right before the '20s, it was all about corsets, and then the '20s came along and women stopped wearing bras and wore these loose dresses, so that they felt very free and open."

Television Series: Boardwalk Empire (S02E01- 21)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Paz de la Huerta
Video Clip Credit: El amigo

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Forget the singing competitions, cop shows, fairy-tale dramas and the “Mad Men”-Style melodramas. For network television this is the season of the vagina. On Monday night on the premiere of CBS’s “Two Broke Girls,” one of the most highly touted new shows of the season, a waitress, played by Kat Dennings, got back at two men who were snapping their fingers at her by letting them know the deleterious effect their behavior had on her vagina. The show is slated to run Mondays at 8:30 p.m.

At that same time next Wednesday, a new ABC comedy called “Suburgatory” has a scene in which a teenager named Tessa is appalled by another girl who is thrilled that a pair of absurdly tiny shorts will show off her belly ring. “You know what else it shows off?” says Tessa. “Your vagina.” And on the new Thursday night comedy “Whitney” on NBC, the pilot originally contained a sequence of jokes — which was edited out but which a producer said was likely to be in a later episode — based on the act of intimate decorating known as “vajazzling,” culminating in the star, Whitney Cummings, saying: “When did vaginas get so boring? Do you think a guy ever saw a naked woman and went, ‘No thank you; not sparkly enough?’ ”

Pushed by the more free-wheeling language on cable television, network television shows have been including common curse words, then bleeping them out, for years, even in mainstream shows like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” But this year, with unbleeped references to anatomical parts being tossed around so freely, it is clearly a new era for network comedy, one that might have parents reaching for the remote, or at least for Google.

“I think our tolerance for what is edgy is changing,” said Ms. Cummings, who, besides writing her own comedy for NBC, also wrote “Two Broke Girls” with Michael Patrick King, a longtime producer and writer of “Sex and the City.” “We’re getting a little desensitized, so sometimes you have to be more and more shocking because now you have YouTube and the Internet and all the rest that’s available for us to watch.”

Ms. Cummings has a special place in this year’s vagina-theme season, having worked on two of the shows using the word. “If one day passes without me writing any more vagina jokes, my career is blown,” she said jokingly. “Vagina jokes paid for my house.”

With many of the shows yet to have their premieres, it is too early for the Federal Communications Commission to note any surge in complaints about language in them, and so officials there declined to comment. CBS did not report an unusual number of complaints about “Two Broke Girls” on Monday night.

Many series creators say the changes should come as no surprise. In addition to cable they point to the crude humor that has made the movies of Judd Apatow, Todd Phillips and other filmmakers staples of contemporary comedy.

The intense pressure on networks to find new hits should not be underestimated either, said Timothy Jay, a professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who specializes in the linguistics of cursing. “Each season the competition is so stiff over who you can get to watch,” Professor Jay said. “That’s why you’re getting more explicit, or more explicitly inferential, use of language.”

It is not incidental that most of the efforts to break through the language boundaries are coming from female writers, and that the words are frequently put in the mouths of female characters. The liberation of language could be read by some as barometer of how far women have come as creators of television content. Female viewers have always been the dominant audience on television. “I think it’s great this is all coming from women,” said Liz Meriwether, the creator of another new show, “New Girl.” “This is all part of the human experience.”

Emily Kapnek, the creator of “Suburgatory,” noted that it would be difficult to challenge a woman’s using clinical words for female parts of the body. “How could anyone take issue?” she asked. “It’s not like vagina should be perceived as a dirty word.”

Professor Jay agreed that the writers were pushing the limits on speech by exploiting legitimate anatomical terms rather the street equivalents. “I think we’re in lot of trouble if we censor clinical terms,” Professor Jay said. “There’s nowhere to go then.”
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Fall season premieres have been airing for the past week, more to be aired in the next few weeks, and a popular theme this fall is sex positivity. Compared to their ancestors, Sex and the City and Will and Grace, this season, shows cover a wide spectrum of relationships, writes Huffington Post's Amy Shiner...

Historically, there have been shows that have made waves and were up-to-date with the family structure. Roseanne, which was one of the first shows to have an openly lesbian character; Full House, child of the '90's here, which show-cased a widowed father; Step-by-Step that showed the realistic family dynamic between two combined families; and most recently Big Love, which represents the very controversial polyamorous lifestyle, are just some.

Sex has always been a key component of marketing. Jewelry, certain fashion merchandise and even shoes use sex appeal to gain a customer base. The past week of watching different premieres, produced by different stations, makes me question which base is this season trying to reach?

The Playboy Club, which can be seen on NBC Mondays 10/9c, is perhaps the most outright example of how the view of sex is changing. The show, which apparently the plot is not historically accurate, provides a look into one of the more controversial jobs in the 1960s. Based in 1963, we are taken into the first club in Chicago. Near the end of the pilot episode we are brought into two different historic scenes that portray the changing sexual politics in the 1960s. The Mattachine Society, formed in the 1950s to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals, illustrated the atmosphere of Chicago in the 1960s. In the next scene we see the new playboy club house mother, played by Jennifer Lewis, speaking to an uncredited actor portraying Hefner, during one of the famous Playboy parties. Both scenes, representing some of the more criticized activities in the sixties, still receive some backlash even now.

Two and a Half Men, airing on CBS Mondays 9/8c, is trying to revive itself after Sheen and brought up the unspoken risks of sex in the first three minutes. Herpes, Chlamydia and genital Warts -- all three of which are very common STIs and not commonly heard on sitcoms -- were brought up by three different former sex partners in the funeral scene marking the character's untimely death in Paris. Later in the episode, Cryer, who portrays Dr. Alan Jerome Harper, is hugged by a naked Kutcher, who replaced sheen and portrays Walden Schmidt.

In the more alternative lifestyle choices New Girl, airing on Fox Tuesdays 9/8c, and stars Zooey Deschanel, makes waves of its own while possible reviving Three's Company for generation y. Set this time with three men and one woman, who happen to find her roommates via Craigslist, we are re-introduced to cohabitating without sex. Near the end of the show, when Deschanel is stood up for a date at a restaurant, her roommates make a heroic move to save her night. Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, and Damon Wayans Jr. -- Wayans seemed to be only cast for the pilot -- show up at the restaurant and introduces themselves to the waitress as her polyandrous lovers.

Along with New Girl, Free Agents, which airs on NBC Wednesdays 8:30/7:30c, eerily reminds me of some of my past relationships. A show based on two office workers, who are both single and both getting over past relationships, shows the struggles of emotional de-attachment and remembering the rules of Human Resources and inter-office dating. The term "safe word," which is used in BDSM (the acronym for bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadomasochism) also known as kink, was used repeatedly through the pilot episode. "Safe word" is used primarily for checking in with a friend via phone when going on a first date or when participating in a sexual activity. The word "potato" chose by characters Alex and Helen, who are portrayed by Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn, is probably the most realistic portrayal of sex positive practices this fall. The word is simple enough to remember, especially when used in real world situations, and would not be used in usual conversation during sex... if you do talk during sex.

For a more toned down version of sex positive shows Up All Night, a new show this season that airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 10/9c , represents the new trend of stay-at-home fathers and working mothers. Glee, which airs on Fox at its normal Tuesday time slot at 8/7c, is back with its normal relationship entertainment value. In tow Sister Wives, the highly controversial show on TLC that begins airing again this Sunday, October 25th, at 10/9c, will pick up from the end of their mid-season break this past spring. The Browns now find themselves in Vegas and despite the ongoing investigation by Utah, the family is finding themselves in a new culture, new family conflicts, and Robyn Brown, Cody's Brown fourth wife, is now expecting her third child.
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The Parents Television Council says that it will complain to the FCC that Fox’s The X Factor violated the broadcast decency rules on Wednesday. The group says that the program showed a contestant, Geo Godley, “dropping his pants and exposing himself during a song and dance routine.” The performance took place shortly after 8 PM in the Central and Mountain Time zones, when the PTC says indecent content is prohibited on broadcast television.

“The prolonged, previously videotaped footage of a contestant dancing nude on the X Factor stage represents a conscious decision by the producers — with the approval of the network’s broadcast standards department — to intentionally air this content in front of millions of families during hours when they knew full well that children would be watching,” PTC president Tim Winters says. He added that “If Godley performed his act in public, he would have been arrested. But if he performs it in front of a Fox camera, his act is beamed via the public airwaves into every home in the nation.” X Factor judge Paula Abdul called the performance “shocking and disgusting,” while L.A. Reid described it as “offensive, disgusting, distasteful and upsetting.”

But TV Watch, a coalition that includes TV networks and free speech advocates, says that PTC mangled some facts. Contrary to PTC’s claim that X Factor was rated ”TV-PG DL,” TV Watch says it was “TV-14, D L” which means “it most certainly would have triggered the V-Chip for parents who utilized it.” Executive director Jim Dyke says that “PTC increasingly has a credibility problem. … Our research among parents makes clear that they want to make the decisions about what their children see — not government.”
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Last night on Grey's Anatomy, Cristina Yang, the driven, ambitious surgeon who had gotten pregnant at the end of last season, went ahead and had an abortion. That's right! Someone actually had an abortion — not a miscarriage, not an ectopic pregnancy, not a last-minute change of heart — on national television. The lengths TV shows will go to avoid having characters go through with abortions have become something of a running, not that funny joke, for all the obvious political reasons, writes Vulture's Willa Paskin. Everyone from Julia Salinger on Party of Five to Cristina Yang herself, back in Grey's second season, have talked about wanting to have one, only to have some less controversial pregnancy-ending plot twist intervene. But not last night! Grey's Anatomy may have brought us ghost sex, ill-advised musical episodes, and endless bed swapping, but it was brave enough to do what almost no other series will: show this one particular, totally legal medical procedure on TV.

At the end of last season, Cristina told her husband Owen that she wanted to have an abortion. Cristina more than loves her job as a surgeon, it's who she is, how she defines herself, and what she wants to dedicate her life to: A child would make that impossible. Owen wants to have the baby, and at the beginning of last night's episodes, they're estranged. Cristina had made, and bailed, on a number of doctor's appointments, psychologically unable to go through with it without his okay. But over the course of last night's two hours, in a rare reversal, Owen changed his mind, and Cristina didn't.

First, Cristina gave Meredith a long speech about how she needs someone, anyone, to see her side and accept that she really, truly does not want to have a baby. This is already pretty radical: It's common TV wisdom that whatever your reservations, once you see your child, you'll not only love it, you'll never regret having it. Cristina disagrees.

Then, Meredith gave Owen a talking-to, pointing out that Cristina is only being true to herself — she's never said she wanted kids — and he should stop trying to make her into someone else. Meredith even went a step further, saying that as the daughter of a woman who didn't love her, she knows just how awful it can be — and that Owen shouldn't put his wife or his child through that.

Meredith's speech seemed to get through to Owen, and after a number of crazy surgeries and a baby-napping (this is Grey's, after all), Owen goes to Cristina, asks her when the appointment is and, ... goes with her to the doctor. During the appointment, the doctor ponderously says, "I'm going to ask you one more time, are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do?" (Showing an abortion is one thing; making it guilt free, that would be a whole other.) Cristina says yes. And then, instead of the usual last-minute flip flop, the abortion actually happens.

Grey's has explored the edges of this territory before. Cristina wanted to get an abortion in season two, before that ectopic pregnancy; Addison has talked about having had an abortion, after getting pregnant with Mark. But last night's storyline constituted a much bolder step, if one perfectly in keeping with character: There's probably no woman on TV right now more single-mindedly dedicated to her career than Cristina. It has long been her defining characteristic. If it occasionally makes her into a caricature, it has also unquestionably established that she would have an abortion in this circumstance. The writers didn't have to get her pregnant at all, but once they did, this was the only plausible resolution for her.

Still, many shows before Grey's have shied away from doing what's right for the character when it comes to abortions. Grey's is a very popular television show; it's possible Shonda Rhimes's pull with ABC is what allowed her to get this story green-lit, in which case, more power to her. Grey's may not be in the same league as TV's other auteurist dramas, but it is the work of Rhimes's very particular sensibility. Sometimes that can be infuriating — all the mistresses! All the voice-overs! — but last night it worked in the shows favor. Grey's Anatomy, you are temporarily forgiven for the ghost sex.
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Australia's national broadcaster faced calls for a review of funding on Tuesday over a television comedy scene with a fictional Prime Minister Julia Gillard draped in a national flag after having sex on her office floor. Conservative opposition lawmakers said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had overstepped good taste with a scene in which actors playing Gillard and her partner Tim Mathieson cuddled naked and used the flag -- with its historic ties to Britain and Australia's Queen Elizabeth -- as a sheet.

"Having sex in the prime minister's office under the Australian flag is the last straw for me. It is sick. I'm offended and we should take a stand," one lawmaker who could not be named told a closed door meeting of MPs, a conservative spokesman told a press briefing. Another MP called for a rethink of taxpayer funding for the ABC, saying the program degraded the office of prime minister, currently held by center-left Labor rival Gillard, while monarchists said the use of the flag was disrespectful.

"I think a bit more discretion when using the flag is appropriate, even when you are trying to make a joke," Australians for Constitutional Monarch head David Flint told Australian media.

Commenters on newspaper websites were also upset with the show "At Home With Julia," which is based around the fictional home life of the country's first female leader. "Rude, negative, abusive, disrespectful and now grubby," a viewer named Andrea Moore wrote in The Australian national newspaper's website.

Gillard herself has laughed off controversy over the satire, but a government protocol officer said the national flag, with its stars and Britain's Union Jack in one corner, should not have been shown lying on the ground.

An ABC spokesman for the program said Gillard had only been shown in a "very gentle, tender scene."

"If it's okay for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don't see why it can't be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love," the spokesman said.
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The stars of Loose Women, Eastenders and Coronation Street have stripped bare for a photo shoot in Best magazine as part of a campaign to fight ageism in TV. Posing completely nude for the magazine's Body Image issue, Gillian Taylforth (EastEnders), Beverley Callard (Coronation Street), Sherrie Hewson and Andrea McLean (Loose Women) protested against the scarcity of roles for older women on television.

After a couple of bottles of champagne to help them loosen up, the ladies were brave enough to take off their clothes for the cameras. Actress Beverley, who is 54 and played the role of Liz McDonald in Corrie for 21 years, said: I was petrified at first, but we egged each other on and ended up laughing so hard we were crying."

Gillian, 56, added: "We started the day off hating our bodies - but by the end we'd realised our so-called flaws make us who we are. And we're proud of the women we've become."

She added: 'Women my age face a lack of parts because writers don't write about women in their 50s. You used to confront ageism in your 50s, then it was in your 40s, now anyone over the age of 35 suffers the stigma of being 'too old.'"

She explained: "In TV, it's OK for men to be 50 or 60, but for women it's very difficult. Older actresses can feel put by the wayside."

"I left The Bill three years ago, and since then TV work has been harder to come by - it probably started in my late 40s."

Gillian told the magazine her slim figure was due to eating less and doing Zumba classes "three or four times a week."

Size 12 Sherrie said she surprised herself by stripping off, saying "I don't even wear a swimsuit as I have a self-esteem problem, so it's astonishing I did it. Everyone has a list of things they should do before they die and this was one of them for me."
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Lincoln Lewis has described sex scenes in the latest episode of Underbelly: Razor as "intense". The Australian actor, who used to play Geoff in Home and Away but more recently played a vice queen's toyboy lover in Nine's graphic crime drama said that he tried to stay "relaxed" when taking his clothes off. "That was my second sex scene, but by far the most intense," he told Ok magazine. "I didn't know what to expect, but I tried to be as relaxed and professional as I could. Danielle Cormack, who plays Kate Leigh, was amazing, because she's done a couple of those types of scenes before. The plan was to just go for it and have fun, and I think in about two takes, we'd nailed it - quite literally!"

This is Lewis as you’ve never seen him before, getting up close and personal with an older woman – “the worst woman in Sydney” – no less. Lewis makes his anticipated arrival playing Kate Leigh’s new toyboy Bruce Higgs. "He is infatuated with Kate," says the actor who hit the big screen last year in Tomorrow, When the War Began, which is bad news for her right-hand man and sometimes lover Wally Tomlinson, played by John Batchelor. "He is pretty smitten by her," he told Access All Areas during a break in filming. "He is 22, he sees what she runs, he sees the group, the gang the mob, and he decides ‘I want in on that’. He is very motivated and doesn’t take no for an answer. If he really wants something, he will find a way to charm his way in. He is very witty and charms the pants off her."

Quite literally, apparently. A sex scene was the first thing Lewis recorded with Danielle Cormack, who plays sly-grog queen Leigh. “That was my first scene of my first day, I had met Danielle once and had one chat to her and she is the easiest person to get along with. I was excited and nervous but, as soon as we got on set, Danielle just made me feel very comfortable.”

Interestingly, co-star Cormack has recently been opening up about her own real-life toyboy lover, who is 19 years younger than her. The 40-year-old New Zealand actress said that she had "chemistry" with 21-year-old Pana Hema-Taylor as soon as they met each other two years ago. "There was undeniable chemistry from the start, but at the time I didn't feel it was appropriate to act on it," Cormack told Woman's Day magazine. "Pana is so charismatic. He's the sort of person who's magnetic to other people - they want to be around him. I was aware of that and then, for that to be directed at me - wow!"

Actor Hema-Taylor said that he "couldn't help but stare" at Cormack because she is so "beautiful" and knew that they had a future together, despite her reservations because of the age difference. Cormack added: "It all fell into place. That overcame any barriers I felt might have been there." Meanwhile, Lewis is currently dating Home and Away actress Rhiannon Fish, who plays April in the soap. He said that filming raunchy scenes for Underbelly was good revenge for all the romance scenes she has to do at work. "Every day I have to see her kiss someone," he said. "Now I'm finally coming up with some payback!"

Television Series: Underbelly:Razor (S04E06- Blood Alley)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Danielle Cormack
Video Clip Credit: Johnny Moronic

Oron

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Playing a lesbian isn't so different from playing straight. I've played a whore, a doctor, an aristocrat lady, and believe me I'm none of those things either...

With dozens of TV appearances from Highlander to Miss Match and an award-worthy turn in the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India under her belt, Rachel Shelley is no stranger to Hollywood. The L Word seems to have cemented her role as a leader of lesbian fiefdom; a fact further cemented by her turn, opposite Heather Graham, in lesbian film Gray Matters. First she was the reserved rich Brit, the pent up babe we loved to hate before evolving into a whole new person: sexy, sultry, nice. When Dylan — the gayest straight girl ever to hit the small screen — joined the cast and gave Helena a little boot knocking, well, this chippy fell hard. And even though Dylan turned out to be a bit of a cad, lovely actor Rachel Shelley, the woman who gave life to Helena, is still basking in that post-coital glow.

Her immaculately coiffed brunette locks are suitably long and flowing. Her complexion is flawless, minimally made up, but just as beautiful in person as on screen. As she talks I note that the cut glass accent is also present and correct. There’s just one thing throwing me off, she’s dressed in what look suspiciously like sweat pants. Admittedly they’re expensively cut and stylish, but still, trust fund brat Helena Peabody would never be seen dead in public wearing something so casual. During our conversation over the next hour, I occasionally glance down at the trackies, seeing them as a kind of symbolic passport into the woman behind the character. It seems to help me mentally separate Helena, someone I feel like I’ve gotten to know quite intimately over the past few years, from the very real actress sipping cranberry juice a few feet away from me.

Following her stint as a part-time north American during the filming of the L Word, Shelley has been keen to work in her home country. “I’d love to do some British TV, but that’s not in my hands, I wish it were.” She does feel that her time in the US has changed the perception of her as an actress. “Before I did the L Word, I’d get cast as very vulnerable characters with wide eyes, and something awful would happen, like they’d be heartbroken or killed. Then I went to the States with Lagaan [Oscar nominated Bollywood film]. As soon as I started getting cast in the States it was as much sharper, tougher characters, people who are a bit devious or who use their sexual prowess to control a man, the kind of roles I’ve never been cast in before.” Relaying the story she is clearly proud of this breakthrough but she also seems slightly uncertain as to why it happened. “There was a big casting director in London who once said to me ‘You’ll never get cast as the baddie, ever.’ Then literally three weeks later I got cast in L Word and I was like, ‘Actually, they think I can do it!’ I don’t know if it was just the accent.”

Shelley claims a strong connection to the lesbian community, having been such a high profile part of its popular culture for five years. “By doing the L Word, I’ve got to know so many gay women and I feel much more of a connection with them. I feel a really strong friendship with Alexandra Hedison who played Dylan, and I’m much more on a level with her than some of the women in LA who were straight. It’s interesting how easily I fitted into that group and not be gay. I don’t know if it comes from having brothers. I’m not that groomed luscious woman that Helena is, I’m much more casual and relaxed so I think I probably fit into that gay corner better. I can play the other role but I don’t fit that stereotype.”

Fans often call you the most beautiful woman on TV. How does it feel when you hear something like that?

Oh, that’s ridiculous, that’s funny. [Laughs] That’s funny. That’s because they see me after seven hundred hours of makeup and hair. They don’t see me when I wake up in the morning and get out of bed. They wouldn’t say that if they saw that. That’s funny. That’s crazy.

You’ve had some really racy scenes. Are they getting easier to film?

It’s funny. I talked about this with Alexandra Hedison, who played Dylan on the L Word. Actually doing them, filming them isn’t that hard. That’s not hard. But, sometimes, there, there’s like a hangover from it. There’s like a aftertaste, that you can’t get rid of. It’s not while you’re doing it, because I think you just get on, you know, you know what you’ve got to do. You have to throw yourself into it totally, otherwise it doesn’t work. And it’s afterwards, when you might feel a bit, just a bit weird. Like physically, I felt … kind of detached from my body after … you have to do a lot of intimate scenes with each other and I think afterwards we both felt a bit disconnected … your brain and your body have stopped talking to each other because they’re not, they’re not listening to each other anymore.

Because you have to turn it off while you’re filming?

Yeah, I suppose so. I suppose you have to, you have to just over ride that … you have to act all these things which normally are so natural, you know. Your body’s impulses tell you who you want to be intimate with and who you don’t want to be intimate with and suddenly you’re have to override that impulse. I did feel a bit jangled up after. I’m usually quite, physically, I’m quite free with my body, and I’m quite open and I found afterwards, I felt a bit, I felt a bit, what’s the word? Sort of shattered by it. And after that, for a good few days afterwards, I felt … inhibited, I felt like I wanted to curl up.

That’s interesting.

I think that scene with Alex was the most intimate and the most prolonged scene that I’ve had to do like that. And, God, I was glad it was with Alex because, she and I got on so well and still do, you know, so I was really glad it was with someone [where] we could look after each other and be very comfortable with one another.

Have you done love scenes with men before?

Yes, nothing quite that intimate though; nothing as intimate or as kind of prolonged as that was. We shot that for quite a while.

Have you learned anything from doing these scenes?

I’ve learned about how different positions makes your breasts look better than other positions on camera. I’ve learned that the other actresses, we can help each other a lot, I think. I’ve learned that they … can have an affect on you that you might not think they will.

When I remark that she seems very cool about being a sex-symbol for lady-loving ladies, her reply is typically blasé. “Oh yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She mentions that she’s now a celebrity columnist for DIVA magazine. “My column is called ‘The Insider’. Which is interesting because I’m trying to be an insider!” she laughs. “Every issue has a theme, and I take that theme and weave in my own stories, and any inside info about the girls on the show. The first theme was good news and the second is sex.”

Television Series: Strike Back (S02E05- Project Dawn 5)
Release Date: August 2011
Actress: Rachel Shelley
Video Clip Credit: Zorg

Fsonic

FServe

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While Anna Paquin is larking through the season being a cheerfully aggressive Sookie sex toy, and the superb Irish actress Fiona Shaw is having a ball channeling a possessed palm-reader-turned-witch(es), the True Blood performance that just gets better — deeper, richer, wittier — belongs to Deborah Ann Woll as the ginger-haired, heart-on-her-bloody-sleeve Jessica Hamby. At the tender age of 17, True Blood's quasi-innocent vampire has studied up on carnal knowledge, killed a horny trucker, and attacked her boyfriend's mom. But this works out just fine for Deborah Ann Woll, the actress who plays her, who gets to live out all her unfulfilled adolescent angst.

Talk a little bit about your character in Season Four, what's happening to her?

Oh God, everything! Jess's story has been kind of a coming-of-age story… this sort of transformation of a girl to woman and human to vampire, and finding your first love. She's been struggling with who she is personally. So that's sort of the direction that this takes, she actually really embraces the vampire side of herself.

She seems to have a lot of bad conscience… she seems to feel bad about what she's doing and…

Yeah, most of my scenes end with Jessica hating herself. Yes, Jessica is closer to her humanity than some of the other vampires, so I think some of that human guilt still lives with her. She hasn't completely given in to the vampire side, but she's also in a tricky situation this season. She's deeply in love with Hoyt, but what he needs from her, is something she can't give. He wants a wife, he wants a very conventional, beautiful household where he gets to be a man, and she's not capable of that. Nor does she want that. She's stuck in it, and I think acting out against it. So the journey here is really, can they find a compromise? Or is she compromising too much of herself right now to be with him?

Did you ever dream of playing a vampire?

No, not before it came along really. I'm a fan of genre fiction and all that, and I've seen many, many different portrayals of vampires, but I've never really thought about it before I got this. It was fun though, I'd do it again!

What about the sexual element and the nudity and all that stuff, are you comfortable with all of that?

I'm pretty much game. I think the internet has ruined nudity a little bit for actors. I love nudity, I love seeing naked people. The interesting thing to me about nudity in acting versus say pornography is the context. If you are having nudity, it's for a reason and hopefully it says something. I am wearier of doing all that nudity on film though, because anyone can take it out of context and use it in a way I never intended. So while I love sexuality, and I love nudity and I certainly don't have any judgment about people who choose to do it, I'm a lot more careful about how and when I choose to be nude on film, than I would if I were doing a stage production.

Are you so comfortable with nudity because of a certain upbringing? Most American's are not that comfortable…

(Laughs) It's funny, I feel a lot of guilt and strange feelings about a lot of things, but sex is the only one I don't feel any guilt about. I think it's beautiful and natural, and kind of amazing. I know my mother was always more concerned about us seeing violence than she was with sex. And I agree with her. When I think about PG-13 films, where they show 50 people dead and you don't see any blood, I go "Well that's not real." Why is that better for a kid to see? It takes an adult mind to look at that and say, "Those people are dead, even though I don't see any consequence of it." It's the young mind really that needs to be shown that this is a consequence. And so that's why I sort of think we are more off track with the violence than we are with nudity.

It seems as though all the people on nude beaches generally don't have the most attractive bodies, well compared to actors…Do you still not have a problem with nudity here?

These are our bodies and I think we all have things that we like and don't like. I admire the people on a beach who you might not consider to have a classically great body, but who say "You know what? It's me, and I love me so deal with it." I don't really like my legs, I think I have kind of meaty, not so great legs and I don't show them very often. But sometimes the costume requires it, so you just kind of go "Great, I'd love the world to see my meaty legs". (Laughter) And then all the girls with meaty legs go "That's okay."

Television Series: True Blood (S04E012- And When I Die)
Release Date: September 2011
Actress: Deborah Ann Woll
Video Clip Credit: Zither

Rapid

or

Mega
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This weekend here in Melbourne Alan Ball was speaking at an ‘In Conversation’ event put on by the Wheeler Centre, a great venue and organization that is part of the State Library and showcases everything to do with writing and storytelling. The creator of True Blood was relaxed, entertaining and informative throughout the hour that he was onstage with enthusiastic and well-researched interviewer Alan Brough. Ball discussed things like adapting a television series from a book series, what they changed from the books and what they will continue to change, sex, nudity and ‘male eye candy’, the show’s passionate fans and their opinions, and also some very small details of what we may see in season five.

Ball was asked if all the ‘male eye candy’ and the fact that they are naked a lot is simply for his own enjoyment or if he’s now objectifying men after so long of it being done to women. Ball replied "Both", but it was unclear how serious he was being. He referred to the books as "lady porn", and told how surprised he was when he first found out there was an entire genre (paranormal romance) where a human heroine is being pursued by vamps, werewolves, fairies, angels, demons, and all kinds of stuff. He says that even though they try to have something for all demographics, women would probably be the target audience.

On the amount of sex, Ball stated: "The heart of True Blood is the primal muck that souls grow out of, and sex is a big part of that." He talked a bit about Jason’s first sex scene with Maudette. Jason is "a wounded little boy at heart who uses sex to try to heal those wounds", so it made sense for his first ever scene to be a sex scene. Ball admitted he did feel very awkward being on set that first time when Ryan and the actress took their robes off.

He revealed the actors’ comfort dictates the level of nudity, and many of the girls on the show are not comfortable taking their clothes off. Ball says if they were, we would be seeing just as many naked girls as we do naked guys. He gave a specific example about Joe Mangianello being especially keen to get naked. The scene where Alcide gets into bed with Debbie in 409 was just in the script as something like ‘He strips down to his boxers and gets into bed’, but Joe was adamant that ‘No, he sleeps naked!’

Interestingly, Ball insisted they don’t write detailed descriptions of sex scenes in the script, just something like ‘they make love.’ There are days when he is not on set when they film a sex scene, and when he sees the footage he’s surprised at just how "intense or risqué or crazy they’ve taken it."
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